Doping: Russia gets a 2018 Winter Paralympic warning

Russia have been warned they will be barred from sending a team to the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in London and the 2018 Winter Games unless “something dramatically changes” regarding doping. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) issued a blanket ban on all Russian competitors at last year’s 2016 Rio Summer Paralympics.

IPC president Philip Craven, speaking at a news conference in London, on Monday said Russia also faced the very real possibility of being excluded from July’s event in London and the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang as well. Russia were suspended by the IPC in August last year following revelations of widespread doping uncovered in a report by Professor Richard McLaren, which also saw the country’s track and field team banned from the 2016 Rio Olympics. The IPC established a task force to monitor and assist the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) in a process of reforming its procedures. But while encouraged by aspects of the RPC’s “progress,” Craven told reporters: “With 291 days to go until Pyeongchang 2018, there is not a moment to waste. “The IPC task force will next update the IPC governing board in September and if the obligations have not been fully met by then, it will be very difficult for the (Russian Paralympic Committee) to have its suspension lifted in time to enter its athletes into the Paralympic Winter Games. “Clearly, with this timeline in mind, unless something dramatic changes in the next few weeks, the Russian Paralympic Committee will not be able to enter its athletes into the London 2017 World Para Athletics Championships.”

KIDS TO CHOOSE TOKYO 2020 MASCOTS

In other news, despite several high-profile gaffes in their 2020 Olympic preparations, Tokyo 2020 organizers reckon choosing the Games mascots will be child’s play-so much so they’re leaving the decision to school kids. Japanese organizers announced Monday that the official 2020 mascots would be decided by a nationwide competition, in which members of the public will submit designs before elementary schoolchildren across the country select winners from a shortlist.

Budding designers have a two-week window from August 1-14 to submit entries, after which a mascot panel will compile a shortlist in December. Japanese schoolchildren, who could have a better handle on the squidgy mascots than organizers who have hitherto bungled the rollout of the Olympic stadium and official logo, will finish voting on the shortlist in January.

The winning designs will be announced in March, with the mascots to be given official names by August 2018. Mascots-often referred to in Japanese as ‘yuru-kyara’ (soft characters) are big business in Japan and have become part of the cultural landscape. The market for characters like Kumamon, a giant black bear with red cheeks which represents Kumamoto prefecture, and his bitter rival Funassyi-a hyperactive ‘pear fairy’ with a love for heavy metal-is an eye-watering $30 billion a year, with mascots adorning everything from key-chains to planes.

Tokyo organizers are battling to rein in runaway costs for the 2020 Olympics which have cast a shadow over preparations. The city’s bid committee estimated costs of $7 billion and projected an economic windfall in excess of $25 billion. But a panel of experts have warned the overall budget could exceed that without drastic cuts. That warning came after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tore up the original plans for the Olympic stadium over soaring costs and organizers scrapped the first design for the 2020 Games logo after accusations of plagiarism. —Agencies